|
In the modern history of the Muslims
of the Indian subcontinent after the end of the six hundred year
long Muslim ruling era in 1857, their emancipation by acquiring
modern education starting in late 1800s represents a very
courageous turning point. The widespread British suppression and
degrading of Muslims of all classes following the failure of the
1857 revolution was savage and impacted all classes of Muslims.
However in the late 1800s a few
Muslim leaders across the country embarked on a path to emancipate
the Muslim community through modern education by building modern
Muslim educational institutions. Two of them who succeeded and
whose institutions have continued to flourish for over a hundred
years now are Sir Syed Ahmad Khan of Aligarh and Badruddin Tyebjee
of Bombay.
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan built the Mohammadon Anglo Oriental School and
College in Aligarh in 1874, where he introduced curriculum from
the prominent universities of Britain and employed British
teachers. Also in 1874 Badruddin Tyabjee built the Anjuman Islam
school and college in Bombay.
Today over a hundred years later the
initiative in Aligarh has blossomed into the large and renowned
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The other initiative in Bombay
has blossomed into the Anjuman Islam Colleges and schools
numbering about 80. In the pre-1947 era both institutions
prospered with encouragement from the then British-Indian
government. The Anjuman Islam colleges/schools were not built as a
residential and unitary institutions, but AMU was built as one.
While Anjuman emphasized education of Muslims but not the handling
of their social-political issues, AMU did both with a view to
create the future Muslim leadership. As the Pakistan movement
heated up in north India in the 1930s, willingly or unwillingly
the political future of the Muslims of India became a major
feature of AMU. After 1947 while Anjuman Islam, not having been
sucked into the vortex of the Pakistan movement did not suffer
significant political recriminations in Hindu majority India, AMU
suffered grievous discrimination for about a quarter century. Thus
in post-independence India AMU became much more than a Muslim
university; it became a symbol of the middleclass Muslims and a
beacon of hope for the emancipation of the community.
Gradually over the years as the political parties and forces have
realized the importance of Muslims as an integral part of India
and AMU too has shed its excluvist tendencies, AMU is again being
looked upon by successive governments and parties in power as one
of the major avenues through whom the Muslim community should be
approached.
In the last several decades the educational backwardness of Indian
Muslims and its contribution to the overall socioeconomic
backwardness of the community has become an open gnawing wound.
The 2007 Justice Sachar Committee report on this subject has put
the government's responsibility to bring educational empowerment
of the Muslim community on the front burner. Not only Congress
party, even the BJP simply can not ignore this need. It is this
realization that led the government to plan the building of
several higher educational colleges for Muslims in various Muslim
concentration districts in the country that could grow in due
course of time into Muslim universities, as recommended by the
Sachar Committee.
However, the government faced a major problem that the Indian
constitution prohibits building such facilities for only one
religious community and the sizeable anti-Muslim forces are in no
mood to let that happen. That is when they thought of expanding an
existing Muslim university by building its remote centers across
the country. They had only two universities to chose from; AMU and
Jamia Milia Islamia. AMU is far more well established with a well
established system of instruction, curriculum, research, academic
management, residential facilities for students, large colleges of
Medicine, Engineering, Law, Business Management, Science etc. Also
in comparison, AMU is a century old internationally known Muslim
university. Thus AMU became the government's choice.
With the planned establishment of five AMU centers of higher
education in places far away from Aligarh, three of which are well
underway in Murshidabad (West Bengal), Mallapuram (Kerala),
Kishanganj (Bihar), AMU is being transformed from being a single
university for Muslims into a university system for Indian
Muslims. While AMU does not have a reservation for Muslim students
it does have a reservation for "internal students". That means
preferential admission of AMU's own students to its professional
and higher science colleges. Since the dominant culture and ethos
of AMU is Muslim-centric most students at higher secondary level
where students are relatively young tend to be Muslims. So that
makes the internal student reservation an indirect reservation for
Muslims.
This system of "internal students quota" has been upheld by the
Courts as being legal, as under Article 30 of the Indian
Constitution minorities are allowed to set up their own systems of
management. Also this is not a reservation for Muslims as anyone
is allowed to become an internal student at AMU. By virtue of
being centers of AMU, the internal student reservation system can
be extended to its remote centers without infringing any laws of
the nation. Thus the government can fund the establishment of the
AMU remote centers. It should be noted that to- date none of the
anti-Muslim parties and groups including BJP have raised any voice
of protest against the establishment of remote AMU Centers funded
by the government.
The plan calls for the five AMU Centers to grow under the
administration at AMU, Aligarh, transferring academic management
know how, management of teaching and student bodies, curriculum
etc from AMU to its remote centers. The expectation is that in due
course of time the remote centers will become their own Muslim
universities. Since all AMU remote centers are being built in
heavy Muslim concentration districts it is natural that it will
spread higher education in the educationally backward Muslim
community. That will bring empowerment and socioeconomic growth to
the backward Muslim community in due course of time.
It should be noted that the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
was built in Kharagpur, West Bengal in 1954. Thereafter utlizing
IIT Kharagpur's system of academic administration, curriculum,
bodies of teachers and students etc more autonomous IITs were
built in Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi and later in Roorkee and
Gauhati. From one IIT it became an IIT system. Today all these
IITs have developed their own culture and system and the
coordination among them is happening very successfully. The plan
for the AMU system and its centers expects to emulate the
successful IIT model.
Just as in the pre-1947 era AMU was a leader of higher education
for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent and Muslims came from all
over the country to study there, today AMU is again becoming the
leader, leading the resurgence of higher education in the backward
Muslim community all over the country, from West Bengal to Kerala.
In the process AMU is also on the path to lead the socioeconomic
emancipation of the depressed Muslim community on an all-India
basis.
Most Indian Muslims and alumnus of AMU have welcomed this
government initiative. But a few in the AMU community are
apprehensive that the expansion of AMU from one university in
Aligarh to the AMU system spread over the entire country may cause
the dilution of the privileges they enjoy at Aligarh. Their
anxieties are imaginary and a generic reaction to change per se.
But change is the law of nature and after 130 years AMU too can
not remain static. More than anything AMU must respond to the
challenge that the extraordinary educational backwardness of the
Indian Muslim community represents, and must lead the path forward
to the uplift of the entire Indian Muslim community. The expansion
of AMU also represents the fulfilment of the vision of AMU's
founders who saw AMU's future not just as one college but as a
catalyst for the establishment of clones of AMU in Muslim
communities throughout the country that will emancipate the entire
community.
The writer is a
community activist. He can be reached on: kaleemkawaja@gmail.com
|
Comments
|
Quick links